[open-science] the early-career guide to doing open science?

Fri Mar 16 17:31:02 UTC 2012

Peter, you're absolutely right re: universities and their resources. I
was definitely looking at this is a uni context, when it's much
broader than that.

Many unis, though, are becoming increasingly interested in creating
tools and programs for the larger community/ies. Perhaps a strategy
similar to one that Puneet suggests--larger IRs backing smaller, more
agile teams that create a data repo serving a niche community--could
be the way to move forward (and with the OKF providing strategies for
doing so).

I'd advocate strongly for partnering with "public trusts" such as
gov't bodies, national libraries, or universities to provide the
infrastructure for any kind of amateur data storage utility, though,
as leaving it in the hands of commerce to provide solutions could lead
to "closed" data. Look what happened with the scholarly journal
system. :)

- Stacy

On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 1:06 PM, Peter Murray-Rust <pm286 at cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> This is a really valuable discussion. Some quick points:
>
> Not everyone is in a University. Those outside are immediately part of the
> #scholarlypoor. The solution "talk to your institutional repo" is no use for
> people in an institution
> Some IRs are suitable for data. Australia has got its act together (TARDIS,
> etc.) But in (say) UK there are probably 100-300 institutions and what they
> offer is very variable.
> I suggested OKF because (a) they have several years of running the CKAN repo
> (b) they have good relations with funders in Europe, especially things like
> Europeana. (c) they have good relations with gov.* I wasn't suggesting a
> huge data fortress in Panton Street - that's why I suggested BL
> Dryad deals with some aspects of evolution
> Sourceforge and its descendants have made software available to the masses.
> We need the same attitude and provision for data. Not all software is
> created in universities and nor is all data.
>
> I am not suggesting etabytes but I can certainly see the value of public
> storage for data in - say - amateur (in the bestb sense of the world)
> astronomy, ornithology, land use, meterology, oceanography - whatever.
> Whether it's from the national purse or commerce - who knows.
>
> And if the country is crying out for data mungers (as OKF suggests) then
> this is a really cost-effective investment in on-th-job-training. After all
> we are running a virtual course on data , aren't we?
>
>
>
>
> --
> Peter Murray-Rust
> Reader in Molecular Informatics
> Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
> University of Cambridge
> CB2 1EW, UK
> +44-1223-763069
>
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